The capital Paris has joined several French cities in refraining from showing matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which starts on the 20th of next month, on huge screens or allocating seats for fans to follow the most important football event in history.
“It was not possible for us to organize venues for rescheduling matches for several reasons: the first is the conditions for holding this World Cup, both from an environmental and social point of view. The second is timing and reality. It (is being extended) in December.”
Paris has followed in the footsteps of several French cities, such as Marseille, Bordeaux, Nancy, Reims or Strasbourg, Lille and Rodez, which have made a similar decision for an event hosted by Qatar between 20 November and 18 December.
The municipality of Marseille, led by the socialist Benoît Bayan and with the participation of a large coalition of leftists and environmentalists, justified its decision by saying that “this tournament has gradually turned into a humanitarian and environmental disaster that does not correspond to the values \u200b\u200bthat we want to see in sports, especially in football.”
A statement from the municipality stressed that “Marseille, which is firmly committed to the values of participation and solidarity in sport and strives to build a greener city, cannot help advance the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. “
In turn, the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Ormeck, told the media, including AFP, that “I have the impression that if these fan clubs are held in Bordeaux, I will be an accomplice in crime” in “this sporting event, which is all human, ecological and sporting perversions.” “.
Hormik said “you can’t call on your citizens to be sober (in energy consumption) and at the same time be complicit in this kind of energy anomaly”, adding that “those who awarded the 2010 World Cup to Qatar were light years from energy sobriety.” “.
The environmental mayor, elected in 2020, clarified that the decision would not change if the World Cup was held in the summer, stressing that the decision to refrain from placing giant screens would remain in place even if the defending French team qualified for the final match.
The mayors also justified their decision on human rights issues and rumors of a high number of deaths among workers at the World Cup facilities in Qatar and its eight stadiums.
Although the official death toll does not exceed three, the International Labor Organization said in a report that in 2020 in Qatar, 50 workers were killed in workplace accidents and 500 were seriously injured.
Rabadan emphasized that “all these reasons make us say that it (the World Cup final in Qatar) is a model for major events that we do not want to continue and are contrary to what we want to organize in Paris.”
